There's something particularly terrifying about sinkholes to me - the idea that the ground might open up below you and drop you into some limitless chasm (or even just barely far enough to get you hurt). Just seeing pictures of the really big sinkholes, like the 2010 one in Guatemala, for example, fill me with a vertiginous Lovecraftian horror.

anansi133
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2014-05-08T20:14:41Z —
#3

I talked to a safety engineer working with one of the smaller TBMs digging in Seattle (not Bertha, I think he steered clear of that mess) One problem he told me about, was that it's easy for a TBM to over-excavate material, and accidentally open up a sinkhole to the surface.

This, plus fracking issues, is good incentive to be more aware of sub-surface geography.

swankgd
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2014-05-08T20:27:07Z —
#5

I like the "throw a red k-rail section at it!" solution. That oughta-take care of it.

NashRambler
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2014-05-08T20:40:58Z —
#6

mutters while stuck in traffic Christ, I hate my job, my wife, my whole life. I just wish a big hole would open up and swallow mWAAAAAAaaaaaahhhh. . . .

dave791
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2014-05-08T20:44:25Z —
#7

In Russia, sinkhole does not like driver.

jerwin
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2014-05-08T20:51:45Z —
#8

It's very Chthonic.

crenquis
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2014-05-08T20:53:04Z —
#9

The dust cloud looked like some creature going after that car on the edge...

winkybber
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2014-05-08T21:46:25Z —
#10

Why do these people not get out of their cars and run?

Brainspore
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2014-05-08T22:10:29Z —
#11

swankgd:

I like the "throw a red k-rail section at it!" solution. That oughta-take care of it.

I was actually pretty damn impressed that someone got a barrier up within a minute or two of the earth opening up.

rocketpj
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2014-05-08T22:46:27Z —
#12

Maybe it's a bad neighbourhood.

chgoliz
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2014-05-09T00:17:43Z —
#13

What bugged me most was the car in the right hand lane who just sat there for a while. The driver came up that lane after the left lane was full so I'm willing to believe he or she didn't know the road was collapsing over there, but once the crash/boom happened and the car to the left was screaming/honking at him to get out of the way, why did that driver just keep sitting there?

Reminds me of how little drivers in Chicago are willing to do to get out of the way of emergency vehicles. Yes, you will be slightly inconvenienced. Now get outta the way.

newliminted
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2014-05-09T02:17:06Z —
#14

I think I'd have shoved any car out of my way if they didn't respond to the horn at that point.

Shuck
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2014-05-09T04:35:28Z —
#15

Is that the one that swallowed up the occupant and caused the rest of the house to drunkenly slump down? Shudder.

Glitch
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2014-05-09T04:46:29Z —
#16

Well most of them have little option, given the extreme wealth disparity. The rest are stupid rich people, and who can fathom their thought processes?

Sandworms and graboids, obviously. A car isn't much protection, but it's better than nothing.

SteampunkBanana
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2014-05-09T15:22:01Z —
#19

I like the car in the far lane at 1:47 that's like "Sinkhole, so what, let's just go by it fast and see what happens!"

PhasmaFelis
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2014-05-09T15:49:46Z —
#20

Brainspore:

I was actually pretty damn impressed that someone got a barrier up within a minute or two of the earth opening up.

Now if only they'd put it in the right lane.

PhasmaFelis
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2014-05-09T15:52:15Z —
#21

Thecorrectline:

It's the smaller ones that get me, the one in Florida a couple years ago that opened up in some poor guys living room... Yeah, why do people still live there?

I saw a comic once with a sequence of Americans being devastated by earthquakes/tornadoes/sinkholes/floods/mudslides/forest fires, each of them saying "Yeah, the X sucks here in Y, but at least we're not like those idiots in Z who have to put up with Q!"